This book provides an up-to-date description of the technical, pedagogical and managerial issues in Web-based learning. The successful application of Web-based learning provides enhancements in workforce performance, helps to lower costs, and encourages innovation for Web-based and distance learning.The book comprises 26 selected and refereed papers presented at the Third International Conference on Web-based learning by academic researchers and industry developers worldwide. It provides an excellent resource for students, researchers and practitioners involved in Web-based learning.The proceedings have been selected for coverage in: ? Index to Scientific & Technical Proceedings? (ISTP? / ISI Proceedings)? Index to Scientific & Technical Proceedings (ISTP CDROM version / ISI Proceedings)? Index to Social Sciences & Humanities Proceedings? (ISSHP? / ISI Proceedings)? Index to Social Sciences & Humanities Proceedings (ISSHP CDROM version / ISI Proceedings)? CC Proceedings ? Engineering & Physical Sciences

This book provides an up-to-date description of the technical, pedagogical and managerial issues in Web-based learning. The successful application of Web-based learning provides enhancements in workforce performance, helps to lower costs, and encourages innovation for Web-based and distance learning.The book comprises 26 selected and refereed papers presented at the Third International Conference on Web-based learning by academic researchers and industry developers worldwide. It provides an excellent resource for students, researchers and practitioners involved in Web-based learning.The proceedings have been selected for coverage in:• Index to Scientific & Technical Proceedings® (ISTP® / ISI Proceedings)• Index to Scientific & Technical Proceedings (ISTP CDROM version / ISI Proceedings)• Index to Social Sciences & Humanities Proceedings® (ISSHP® / ISI Proceedings)• Index to Social Sciences & Humanities Proceedings (ISSHP CDROM version / ISI Proceedings)• CC Proceedings — Engineering & Physical Sciences

With the rapid development of Web-based learning, a new set of learning - vironments including virtual classrooms, virtual laboratories and virtual u- versities are being developed. These new learning environments, however, also introduce new problems that need to be addressed. On the technical side, there is a need for the deployment of e?ective technologies on Web-based education. On the learning side, the cyber mode of learning is very di?erent from tra- tional classroom-based learning. On the management side, the establishment of a cyber university imposes very di?erent requirements for the set up. ICWL 2005, the 4th International Conference on Web-Based Learning, was held in Hong Kong, China from July 31 to August 3, 2005, as a continued - tempttoaddressmanyoftheabove-mentionedissues.Followingthegreatsuccess of ICWL 2002 (Hong Kong, China), ICWL 2003 (Australia), and ICWL 2004 (China), ICWL 2005 aimed at presenting progresson the technical, pedagogical, as well as management issues of Web-based learning. The conference featured a comprehensive program, including a number of tutorials, two keynote talks, a main track containing regular as well as short paper presentations, and an application track. We received a total of 99 submissions from all over the world. The Program Committee selected 33 papers as regular papers for presentation in the main track, an acceptance rate of about 33%. Due to the high-quality submissions, the Committee decided to further accept 9 papers as short papers for presentation.

This year, we received about 170 submissions to ICWL 2008. There were a total of 52 full papers, representing an acceptance rate of about 30%, plus one invited paper accepted for inclusion in this LNCS proceedings. The authors of these accepted papers came from many different countries. We would like to thank all the reviewers for spending their precious time reviewing the papers and for providing valuable c- ments that aided significantly in the paper selection process. Authors of the best papers presented in this conference will be invited to submit extended versions of their papers for possible publication in a special issue of IEEE Internet Computing. This was the second time that the ICWL conference was organized in China. It was particularly special this year to hold ICWL 2008 in China, as the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games were co-located in the same country during the conference period. We would like to especially thank our Organization Co-chair, Lanfang Miao, for spending an enormous amount of effort in coordinating the local arrangements. In fact, we would like to thank the entire conference Organizing Committee for their hard work in putting together the conference. In particular, we would like to express our appreciation to our Registration Chairs, Jiying (Jean) Wang and Lanfang Miao, and Treasurer Howard Leung for their tremendous efforts in communicating with the authors regarding registration matters and maintaining the registration lists up-to-date.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the First International Conference on Hybrid Learning, ICHL 2008, held in Hong Kong, China, in August 2008. The 38 revised full papers presented together with 3 keynote lectures were carefully reviewed and selected from 142 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on hybrid education, model and pedagogies for hybrid learning, trends, pervasive learning, mobile and ubiquitous learning, hybrid learning experiences, hybrid learning systems, technologies, as well as contextual attitude and cultural effects.

This book contains selected papers presented at the seventh Conference on Working Group 3.7 of the International Federation for Information Processing. The focus of Working Group 3.7 is on ITEM: Information Technology in Educational Management. The overall goal of the conference was to demonstrate and explore directions for developing and improving all types of educational institutions through ITEM.

Providing a comprehensive and evidence-based reference guide for those who have a strong and scholarly interest in medical education, the Oxford Textbook of Medical Education contains everything the medical educator needs to know in order to deliver the knowledge, skills, and behaviour that doctors need. The book explicitly states what constitutes best practice and gives an account of the evidence base that corroborates this. Describing the theoretical educational principles that lay the foundations of best practice in medical education, the book gives readers a through grounding in all aspects of this discipline. Contributors to this book come from a variety of different backgrounds, disciplines and continents, producing a book that is truly original and international.

"Place: it's where we're from; it's where we're going. . . . It asks for our attention and care. If we pay attention, place has much to teach us." With this belief as a foundation, The Power of Place offers a comprehensive and compelling case for making communities the locus of learning for students of all ages and backgrounds. Dispelling the notion that place-based education is an approach limited to those who can afford it, the authors describe how schools in diverse contexts—urban and rural, public and private—have adopted place-based programs as a way to better engage students and attain three important goals of education: student agency, equity, and community. This book identifies six defining principles of place-based education. Namely, it 1. Embeds learning everywhere and views the community as a classroom. 2. Is centered on individual learners. 3. Is inquiry based to help students develop an understanding of their place in the world. 4. Incorporates local and global thinking and investigations. 5. Requires design thinking to find solutions to authentic problems. 6. Is interdisciplinary. For each principle, the authors share stories of students whose lives were transformed by their experiences in place-based programs, elaborate on what the principle means, demonstrate what it looks like in practice by presenting case studies from schools throughout the United States, and offer action steps for implementation. Aimed at educators from preK through high school, The Power of Place is a definitive guide to developing programs that will lead to successful outcomes for students, more fulfilling careers for teachers, and lasting benefits for communities.